POLITICAL COLUMN

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John McCain, seen here leaving Russell Senate Office Building on Thursday, may have made a smart decision suspending his campaign.
John Shinkle

I have watched John McCain shoot craps for hours. He shakes the dice in his left hand, blows gently into his fist and then, with a somewhat awkward loft — both his arms were broken when he ejected from his A-4 Skyhawk over Hanoi in 1967 — he sends the cubes tumbling down the table.

Craps is his favorite casino game, and he understands that it is high risk, but he believes you can win if you place your bets correctly. “All you need,” he says, “is a little luck.”

John McCain is now shooting craps with his presidential campaign. It is high risk. But all he needs is a little luck to pull off his current gamble.

McCain has suspended his campaign to work on a solution for the nation’s financial meltdown, and he has threatened to pull out of the first presidential debate scheduled for Friday unless Congress takes action by then.

McCain has been attacked from all sides for doing this, but it isn’t as dumb or as desperate as it looks.

McCain’s campaign has not exactly been a well-oiled machine lately, and a suspension might help. McCain essentially suspended the first day of the Republican National Convention because of Hurricane Gustav, and while some thought that was a dumb overreaction, it actually gave him a perfect excuse to cancel appearances by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Besides, McCain has never been known for excessive caution. At the beginning of his 2000 presidential run, he would talk about his early days as a Navy jet jockey, when he and his buddies would just take off without bothering with all the safety procedures.

McCain said his motto in those days was: “Kick the tires and light the fires. To hell with the checklist. Anybody can be slow.”

Thursday, McCain invoked his military days again, though in a different fashion. “I’m an old Navy pilot, and I know when a crisis calls for all hands on deck,” he said. “That’s the situation in Washington at this very hour, when the whole future of the American economy is in danger. I cannot carry on a campaign as though this dangerous situation had not occurred, or as though a solution were at hand.”

Here is the upside in McCain’s gamble: Congress reaches a solution before Friday night, McCain takes credit for jawboning the lawmakers into doing it, and then he flies down to the debate looking like a man of action willing to make bold moves.

Here is the downside: Congress fails to act in time, McCain gets to blame Congress for letting the people down, he misses the debate, and Obama gets to stand on a stage without him.

Is any of that so terrible?

Yes, McCain would be blamed for being impetuous, and he does do impetuous things. (Wanting to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris Cox and possibly replace him with Andrew Cuomo ranks right up there.)

But McCain as an action figure is not a bad image. At least he is doing something, while our president doesn’t seem to be doing much of anything.

Yes, Bush was roused from his slumbers long enough to address the nation from the East Room of the White House Wednesday night. But as a confidence-building gesture, it wasn’t much.

“Our entire economy is in danger,” Bush said. “The market is not functioning properly. There’s been a widespread loss of confidence. And major sectors of America’s financial system are at risk of shutting down.”

It was like a fireside chat with somebody dumping a bucket of cold water on the fire.

The president didn’t have to be a Pollyanna, but he could have left us with something to linger in our memories and give us strength.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said: “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. …”

Bill Clinton once said: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

George Bush said Wednesday: “In the long run, Americans have good reason to be confident in our economic strength.”

But, as the famous economist John Maynard Keynes once said: “In the long run, we’re all dead.”

The truth is that McCain's gamble was unnecessary and it will be seen as such if Obama plays it right (which, to me, he did yesterday). Because McCain had not been communicating with leaders of congress throughout the week, he had no idea what deal was coming down the pipe. Obama knew, nayThe truth will set you free

You guys think Al Queda will respect a time out?? I don't think so. This is panicky, which makes his gimicky pick that much more revealing. Knee jerk, gut reactions is what we got from Bush for 8 years. I'm not ready for 4 more.

The truth is that McCain's gamble was unnecessary and it will be seen as such if Obama plays it right (which, to me, he did yesterday). Because McCain had not been communicating with leaders of congress throughout the week, he had no idea what deal was coming down the pipe

THE TRUTH?

Yeah, like Reid and Pelosi are going to "communicate" with McCain? You are delusional! McCain has been in contact with Paulson, Bernanke, and the committees involved in the process, in addition to economists. To say he has talked to no one is typical Gibbs BS.

THE TRUTH IS that Reid put the success or failure of this legislation on the shoulder of John McCain on Tuesday.

Saying that if McCain is not a part of this process....it will fail. Even saying, once again, "we need to know what to do". He didn't want the democrats to have ALL the credit you see, what if the whole thing fails. The entire blame would be on OBAMA and the dems.

So, Wednesday, John McCain answers the call and says he will go to D.C. and get involved. (Not the first time he's put country first over election outcome)

OH NO! Now, Reid says...we don't need you here. God forbid that after McCain goes into the fray...a compromise is struck? Now he will look more like "leader" than Obama. (Which he is)

You all think it's some kind of "political ploy"....if it is, it is the ploy of Reid and the democrats. They asked for him...they got him.

If you people would pay half as much attention to the facts as you do to rhetoric and misinformation you would look less like morons on these threads.

Obama keeps talking about the legislation "he introduced" two years ago to deal with this crisis.....why isn't there anything on the news about that? They've shown Bush's (2003), Greenspan's (2005), and McCain's (2006) warnings to the congress...why haven't thay included film of Obama's introduction of legislation? Love to see it!

I can't see how suspending his campaign and the debates and trucking on down to Washington is going to help any. Action is important, yes, but not action for action's sake. Congress seemed to be coping without him - I didn't hear anyone lamenting his absence. Being a Senator isn't his only job, he's a presidential candidate, and should fulfill all of the obligations that go along with that. Maybe I'd be tempted to trust him more if he hadn't waffled his way through the past couple of weeks.

It's also rather callous to suspend the debate when Ole Miss has already put in so much time, effort, and money preparing for it.

lol. Yeah, there's an upside if the entire country (no just that 25%) are utterly and irrevocably brain damaged. This move is worse than picking Palin. It has not only handed victory to the Dems it has handed a LANDSLIDE to the Dems. Conservatives are turning against McCain. People who don't usually take a political stand are turning against McCain (Letterman etc.) My God, even Martha Stewart spoke out against him. He has lost middle America and just about everything above and below it. This, and the Palin choice, will be discussed for years as the biggest political blunders of ALL time. And I even voted for McCain in 2000 in the primaries and was a HUGE McCain supporter. That man no longer exists.

Roger Simon's right except for the most important part. McCain is already being excoriated by members of both parties for being absent, for granstanding, for having little or nothing to contribute. If there is a deal before Friday night, no one, except perhaps Mc-LIEberman and Graham, will give him any credit. We would have to hear the audio of his jawboning. He can't speak econ and he will blab about this or that is patriotic and if you don't stop resisting now, you are a Commie--or something like that. Further, there may be provisions he doesn't like, and he will be expected to vote for a change. No, not a chance he will get credit for the deal. He will be reviled for almost screwing it up. Shades of the Forrestal fire. A hero, or "there at the ignition" ? No one will ever know.

Rumble, rumble, seethe, and roar, McCain will win landslide even with a snore. In reading the posts that the left wing nuts and right wing nuts throw out it is clear that yous guys dont get it. Barrack ran as the peace and love candidate believing that Iraq would decide the election. He misssed the boat as it now comes down to the economy and neither Barrack or McCain know anything or can do anything. Bottom line is that when the people that pay taxes vote they will decide to vote for the fool they know....McCain, rather than the fool that they have only heard of....Obama. McCain old and in the way and Obama is just a gutter crawler from Chicago hiding behind the Oprah veneer. Basically the McGovern and Dukaeye election cycles with a little Mondale thrown in for flavor is what we get in 08!

Bush was as inexperienced as Obama on foreign policy, but we had "Cheney" to back him up!

Obama has Biden to back him up.

Same formula yet you are going to expect different results?

Amazing!

Bush was inexperienced in basic thinking and rationalization. Not just foreign policy. I think most Americans would like to think that their Pres. is a bit smarter than they might be. With Bush, hell my 4 year old could out think him. That's a stretch I know, but not much of one.

Mccain has new make-up person and he does not look good.And other blogs are talking about it.EXAMPLE:" I even had an elderly woman at church tell me that she thinks something is wrong with his face because one side is bigger than the other and she said that man is trying to hide some of his health problems, he's ill." ". Scary to think he really is ill and that is why he wants out of the debate. Really puts the Palin choice under the microscope if it is true.

What does "Suspended His Campaign Mean",,,Four appearances in NYC on Wedns, the day he suspended, then Thurs Photo Ops in DC,,and a play acting meeting with the President,,with certain Republicans, now saying no deal, so that in a hour or two, they, from the Oval Office can say a deal has passed,,why, why does everything that McCain does, says is a LIE,,he is a true McBush, and don"t bring up his VP Choice, wow ,,is this a insult to women first, and the Country on the Whole...sick

How funny..his grandstanding was too late..the deal was cut and he was out of the loop on this too KEATING 5//RTHe Gramm Bill of 1999...All with McBush's little fingers on them... Then in Oct 2002, Bush made a speech about asking Fannie/Freddie to stand down the regulators and set aside 700 Billion dollars for home loans!!!

So glad that a man who quote "doesn't know much about economics" is going to try to take credit for the democratic congress cleaning up yet another of George W. Bush's messes. Unfortunately for him, Americans know that the President has to be able to handle more than one thing at once. This election is between judgement on competence on the Obama/Biden side, and distraction and dangerous recklessness with McCain/Palin.